French government finds holy grail; cut costs while weakening the press.

The Pax Americana is breaking down and European riders of America's coat tails are starting to have to foot the bill and commit military to areas they only recieve passive benefits from, this is expensive and offers little return on investment so unsurprisingly countries are looking to cut costs. (France's success at keeping its own little empire going in Africa on the downlow is a topic for another time but even that is threatened by weakening US power). The French government has proposed a law where those rescued from Somali pirates by commandos or from Colombian rebels via breaches of international law would foot the bill if it was decided it was their fault they got into the dangerous situation.

Now on the face of it this sounds pretty good, the tax payer shouldn't have to foot the bill for the rescue of rich bastards who decided to take their yacht through a dangerous area for a bit of a thrill or whatever but Sarko and his cronies are refusing to exempt journalists or aid workers from this legislation. So if aid workers go to an area and help people that French foreign policy doesn't want to be helped and they captured and need rescuing the charity has to pay. Of course if they were giving aid in one of France's client states its not impossible their kidnap and rescue could be arranged specifically to take funds from a disliked charity (or indeed journalistic organisation). Even if that isn't the plan it certainly will have a deterrent effect for charities and journalists to go to the world's dangerous places, especially if the French government doesn't want them going.

While I'd doubt the US would do this, it'd look too much like weakness, I wouldn't be surprised if similar legislation is proposed in other European countries, Canada or Australia.